Every bit of food matters: preserving and cooking eggplant on the homestead. 

Loved seeing you laugh at yourself when you prematurely loaded the trays. It was a refreshing break from the professionalism and polish your videos normally bring ❤️

I SO appreciate how beautiful you make things but that you also show and speak to the mold, the flies, the reality. Helps me realize that I'm not "doing it wrong"or being a lazy hobby farmer - I always appreciate the honest sharing so we know this lifestyle isn't instagram post perfect! And YES. The permanent flies. Inside. Outside. In the compost. Always.(handheld vaccum cleaners have been my only really successful fly mitigator;)

Being half Italian, my favorite meal of all time is Eggplant Parmigiana. So when I started gardening many years ago, I made sure to grow A LOT of eggplant. I preserve my eggplant by making the coated eggplant and baking it ( as you did ) , letting it cool completely and then placing it on cookie sheets in single layers. Then freeze the coated, baked eggplant. Once frozen, I place 20-24 slices into a freezer bag and stick it into my chest freezer. Now this takes time so I do batches. Then through the winter, I am able to make eggplant parmigiana as a quick meal. I use my homemade sauce instead of crushed tomatoes. I defrost the slices before assembling the dish and yes they are a bit soggy after being frozen but they bake up beautifully and taste like summer. I am wondering how the freeze dried eggplant turned out, hopefully, good.

A freeze drier costs $3,000 and up. Then you have the electricity to run it. If you use oxygen absorbers, the cost of them. Lids, rings and jars or mylar bags and a sealer for the bags. Filters, oil. Extra trays, liners, etc. Just things to consider. For some it will be very worthwhile, for others, it may not be. You would just need to consider your pros and cons for your family.

I recommend that you freeze all food before freeze drying. It saves time. I saw you have extra trays which is a great idea. I always have a set of trays in the freezer waiting to go in while a batch is freeze drying.

My dream is to own land and also have a homestead like you and I’ve been learning so much from your channel. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us. I live in an apartment but I’ve already started growing garlic to get my foot in the door. Your channel is so wholesome 💖🙏🏼 Thank you for such amazing content!

I have a HR freeze dryer and eggplants from the garden in my fridge! I’ll be doing this after my current batch is done. I’d love to see a video on how you use them after they are freeze dried!

Save those beautiful jars for canning, or give them to someone who could use them. Your recipe looks wonderful and a must try, thank you for sharing.

Just found this older video and made your eggplant parmesan today. Fabulous! Must admit that a lengthly clean up was required. While juggling my large, hot baking trays, realized that your smaller ones are a benefit.

I grew up with my mom making eggplant Parmesan like this. She would slice it thinly and fry it and then layer it with sauce and cheese. My own kids love it just fried too! Lots of work but so worth it, I make it asked in the over til it’s crisp too.

Yum! We had eggplant for supper from my garden. I dipped in butter instead of egg . Next time I’ll use an egg. It was delicious. We ate it with bread.

I do my eggplant Parmesan/lasagna in a similar way. The only difference...I heat the sauce on the stove while the layered eggplant bakes, and serve a spoonful of sauce over the top of individual servings. It’s so good!

Being Italian we pickle eggplant in jars and use over the year so delicious. There are many recipes you can find on line.

We're they good? I would've loved to have seen a test test of each at the end. I could probably guarantee the lasagna was good, but I wanted more about textures and everything with the freeze-dried eggplant. Like, could it be used as a snack?

A way I grew up eating eggplant (also a way it is often served in the Philippines and amongst Filipinos still today) is: 1. Roast the eggplant in the oven just until the skin is soft enough to peel away and eggplant is soft 2. Take out of oven and peel the surface skin off gently 3. Mash the eggplant flat with a fork (holding onto the stem part) 4. Dip in a seasoned egg mix (salt and pepper is fine) 5. Fry on the stove on both sides until crispy Serve with rice or eat alone dipping in soy sauce. Sooo good!! (:

Thanks for being real with us.

Make sure you stock up on the vacuum pump oil! It needs changed out regularly. Absolutely LOVE your channel. ❤

Making tommorrow. Bless y'all💚

Ohhh this looks so yummy! I have celiac disease and so I love your recipes because it’s usually so easy to substitute what I need to change for my allergy! I use your cookbook all the time too! Thank you for finding these recipes that are so easy and delicious for everyone in every walk!

Blessings to all!

This was great Shae! I can’t remember if you have a milk cow or not, but could you do a deep dive video on everything with that, from getting started to everything you’ve learned? It would be appreciated!

This is my new favorite channel now. I'm binge watching your videos and I just can't stop 🥰🌼 you're so lovely and inspiring 💞

We love our freeze-dryer! I find peppers don't rehydrate perfectly mainly just because the skin gets tough but everything else is amazing! I love making big batches of food and freeze-drying meals for busy days.

I just pulled in the last of my eggplant too and can’t wait to make this. Thanks for sharing!

You are an inspiration ‼️‼️🌹🌹 I admire the way you go about your chores specially giving it a old time feel ,, while using all the new technologies.I Do enjoy it dear , keep it up ,

Love eggplant parm! Will have to try this recipe! Avoiding flies tip: put cloves in lemons! Cut half a dozen lemons and place around 6 cloves in each half. Distribute them around the room and voila! Flies no more. Place them by windows and doors to repel flies from coming in. I tried it and it works! A few days into the lemons laying around though, I either replaced the lemon halves or cut slices off the lemon to reveal fresher juice. Smells nice, too!

Lovely video Shaye as always! Was dying to see an end shot of your dish! Like cutting into it, what it looked like with the cooked layers I bet it was divine! 😍

I have a freeze dryer and absolutely love it. It has been great for me to help cut the food budget of my son in college by putting things in the freeze dryer that he can later cook.

Nice! Love your video, as always. Your family are so blessed to have you,🥰

Your so pretty, so talented, and so smart! Thank you Shaye Elliott, I learn so much from you! I am a fan.

Shaye I hit Thumb-up as soon as I heard you say freeze-dryer. This indeed is a wise investment any homesteader can make to preserve home-grown foods. An Asian twist on cooking skinny eggplant is to steam and hand shred into long pieces, place on a platter and pour over an aromatic sauce (sauteed minced ginger garlic and green onions mixed with soy sauce balsamic vinegar and roasted sesame oil). Great over rice.

Perfect timing to share this beautiful recipe! I have some gorgeous eggplant to use. Thank you

I have an idea for the eggplant if you had a freezer. Cook your eggplant whole for about an hour ,make slits in cooked eggplant and let drain for about an hour. Clean out pulp off the skin and hand chop fine and add superfine chopped onion and add oil to make a nice style dip that you can spread on bread . Add salt and pepper to taste. You can store this in the freezer for months.I make soup with the eggplant and various veggies , it's really a delicious way to use it.

We have a harvest right and have loved it. Really looking forward to seeing all that you do with yours. Never thought of freeze drying these things. Speaking of Thanksgiving it would be great to see freeze drying Thanksgiving leftovers.

Turkeys haven't always been traditional. Most families ate what was available in their area. This year, I'm making duck a la orange from Indiana grown duck. I purchased it two months ago. Turkeys are sent to the distribution center every February.

Bravo! Thanks as always! I am seemingly constantly needing more veggie recipes.

As someone who was previously pretty ambivalent about eggplant I have to say this recipe was really amazing! I made it last night and I've already had leftovers for both lunch and dinner tonight (I NEVER eat the same thing for 3 meals in a row)!

This kitchen is hard on the brain!!

I feel like I am right in the kitchen with you. Thanks for the invitation. I ve learned a lot.

We love our freeze dryer.

We just ordered our HR. Will be trying this soon, hopefully. That eggplant Parmesan looked amazing!!

A freeze dryer is on my wishlist! Congrats 🥳

I’ve never thought of heating my baking pans in the oven before I bake something! Love this video!

Looks delicious, it’s given me a nice idea on what do when I’ve got cook up some eggplant.

YUMMY!! 😋 That looks SO good!! I have never tried Eggplant Parmesan. Now I'm tempted to try it!! Thanks! 😊

I agree that Eggplant Parm is the ultimate comfort food! I don't make it often because of the mess and frying, but doing the frying in a very hot oven may just be the thing that inspires me to make it more often! I'm so happy for your new investment, way to up the food storage game big time!

I absolutely love brinjal chutney 😋 it's so delicious x

Love your videos. Cooking has always amazed me.

I’m a new sub and have been binge watching. Being Italian my favorite way to do eggplant is to marinate it, I cut mine in strips salt it and put it in a caliber and put a plate on top weight it and let drain rinse and weight it again. Let sit for a couple of hours hand squeeze out remaining water. Put it in a bowl add a little bit of red wine vinegar add oregano and sliced garlic and sit for an hour put in jars cover with olive oil and store for when you want it. When I use mine I add marinade artichoke roasted red peppers olives and provolone. My other way I love it is making them into French fries. When I make them I use only male eggplant cause they are lest bitter and less seeds. Love and prayers always have a blessed day ❤️❤️🙏🙏

I did it I made eggplant parmigiana with your sweet inspiration thank you

missed watching your videos, enjoying this very much ❤️

This was a wonderful video!! I really want egg plant parmigiana now oh my gosh. I think the freeze drying is a good solution as well for storing things. Whatever works for things to keep for eating all winter is whatever works best I think. Thank you enjoyed so much!

I love this recipe, thank you for sharing. I have missed seeing you, I am glad you are back! Did your family like this meal? I always enjoy it when you show family gatherings.

The most popular recipe in Greece with eggplants 🍆....mousaka...please try it another time!!!!!!!!

I have been watching The Purposeful Pantry for preserving by freeze drying and dehydration. She has many hint.

Your Lasagna looks really good. You work so efficiently & effortlessly. Eggplant is good. Prayers & Blessings. 🥀🙏🥀

I never know what to do with eggplant! 😛 And I love your videos!! I could happily lose track of time binging on them. Haha 😆 have a blessed day Elliot Family!

I am so excited to find your RU-vid channel! We just got our harvest right freeze drier and we love it so much.getting ready to make a French strawberry cake with freeze dried strawberries ground and some rehydrated with brandy and brown sugar.

Great video!

Great job! Love ya!

I am absolutely in love with your channel! I have watched at least one of your videos every day since finding it. I would love to see someone doing something like this in South Louisiana where our humidity, heat, and water tables are high. We are enjoying some crisp cool weather at the moment, but the majority of the year is super hot to the point where you become exhausted and you don’t even want to go outside. The AC runs 24 hours a day and can’t even keep our house under 80°. We can’t have cellars here because of the water table. I would love to find some books on how our ancestors did it 🥵

Another idea of cooking with eggplants is making eggplant spread ! In our Romanian an culture we bake the eggplants on the grill and once they are mushy and baked inside , let it cool and remove the skin! Let the egg plants drain from the extra juice and oil chop with a wooden or plastic knife on a cutting board really fine and place in a bowl! Add salt and olive oil until the mixture gets to a point where is pasty and oil doesn’t appear to sieves through and it’s well absorbed into the eggplants ! Once achieved the favoured consistency and taste add some chopped green onions, black pepper and a bit of mayonnaise Hellman’s or vegan according to your preference and taste ! You can spread it on toast , crackers or breads of your choice ! We have enjoyed this for generation ! We also make a vegetable spread using grilled red peppers , onions, carrots, tomatoes and some add mushrooms, or baked beans ! My family prefers it without the last ingredients! We preserve that for over the winter ! Hope you try it out !

In our country a way to preserve eggplant is to make a spread using oil,onions and roasted peppers as the base of the spread and then we add roasted eggplant.Every vegetable is very well minced.And we preserve it in jars. There are different recipes in Romania.I am sure you would like it.

I use eggplant in a lot things. Alfredo, spaghetti, soups. Once I peel it I cut it up and throw it in. Kind of like using Zucchini.

Delicious you've inspired me to make eggplant parm

I sliced egg bread crumb and bake on cookie sheets cool and store in freezer with parchment paper in between . I take out what I need to make eggplant Parmesan.

I make a roasted eggplant and red pepper pasta sauce that is amazing and uses a good amount of eggplant.

Every bit of food matters! Here's how I'm finishing up preserving (and enjoying) the eggplant harvest. JOIN OUR COOKING COMMUNITY! cook.theelliotthomestead.com and if you'd like information on the freezer dryer we added to our arsenal, you can do that right here: bit.ly/3mzls0v

that looked really good. that would make a tasty dinner

Pot pie is on the list of meals made with extra love!

I cook eggplant with tomato sauce and a can of chopped tomatoes an d parmesan on top pop in oven for about 30 minutes and eat. Yummy can also add chicken on bottom if u want it's so good and easy..then other ingredients on top .learned this recipe years ago .I know it's important to stock up exspecially now but it's so refreshing to see u don't use the fear factor ..just telling us how to save our food .I have started freeze drying everything I can get hands on..just did a bunch of celery and carrots..I am definitely gonna try your recipe..it looks so darn good..

Eggplants are one of my favorite fruit / vegetables but I don't have a freeze dryer. The only thing I've been able to do is dehydrate them and I pickled some though I'm not a big fan of pickled vegetables.

You can do some sort of antipasti salad where you combine all leftover veggies left (oversized zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes anything you want). Just chop in cubes, mix in one pot with diced onions garlic eggplants. Add herbs like parsley and dill or any herb of your liking. Bring to boil, simmer until all veggies upto your liking (I llike to be al dente) add tomate paste of sauce (or you can skip if enough tomatoes) .add salt pepper vinegar and while hor pack into jars. Water bath after for 10-15 min for pints. Remove, put upside-down while cooling. Enjoy on toast, as an appetizer or as a side dish. Cheers from Toronto

The only time I've tried eggplant it was soggy and not appealing. This gives me hope to try it again! Thanks for sharing.

Recipe for eggplant parm: Cut eggplant and salt for 30 minutes Press dry Preheat oven with trays for 425 3 tbs oil on tray Spread out eggplant on trays in oil Cook 30 min (20 min 1 side; flip 10 min) Layers: Tomato, Eggplant, Cheese, Tomato, Eggplant, Cheese, Tomato, Cheese 350 oven 30 minutes

Highly recommend turning eggplant into eggplant dip! You can find recipes online and they freeze in big quantities really well!

I have never had eggplant in any form. Looked good

Thank you so much for the freeze drier demo. I'm healing my thyroid with AIP eating, and it's working, so no nightshades; but I can still learn about preserving no matter what foods are being used.

I make a phenomenal Eggplant Stew with Wild Salmon and Sword fish and it's off the chain delicious 🔥🤤💯😋

Lasagna in Spaghetti is used by Italian instead of meat. “The Pasta Grammar” RU-vidr has recipes with eggplant. I tried the one for the spaghetti sauce. Loved it.

I cook mine in tomato sauce with lots of garlic and parsley, S/P and BBC a splash of vinegar. First brown them and then add it to a casserole with the rest of ingredients and cover with chicken stock and cook till done. Or I cube dehydrate and add into stews or soups or make Bubba ganoush dip with fresh ones

It makes me feel better that with your beautiful home, you still have flies. Same here on our homestead. I think I just killed the last one....maybe....fingers crossed lol.

Oh I love the rustic cellar look but just put more shelves

looks delish. always have too many eggplant. freeze dryer results look awesome, but it's a big investment. usually make jars and jars of marinated eggplant following Chef John's (Food Wishes) recipe for Argentinian Escabeche. made an eggplant lover out of me. I pack my frig full and weep when we finish up last jar sometime in April or May.

NICE AND YUM! SHARED TO THE BURGH

I sure miss Stuart being in the videos with you and the conversations you guys have. I haven't seen him or the older kids for several videos.

Lovely

Shake n Bake was a staple in my house! We loved it! Haha! Honestly if I wasn’t allergic I would probably still eat it 😛

🤣 flies! That’s the truth!

I like to add fresh BASIL 🌿 to the sauce :)

There’s so many good ways to eat eggplant! Besides the Italian parmigiana, there’s Thai Phad eggplant, there’s tons of Indian recipes for curried eggplant , grilled eggplant, dry coconut curry eggplant, so many more, check out other cultures, there are some amazing recipes!

Mashallah nice looks yummy!

I love your bakeware you use. I'd love to know where I can purchase some myself.

Baba Ganoush, in February, sounds delicious!

Lol I just bought shake and bake pork chop last week it's still good lol

Eggplant 20 years ago were always bitter and were always salted to remove some of the bitterness. I haven't found any bitter ones for quite some time. No doubt the seed has been fiddled with. I'm a big believer in the natural bitterness of some of our fruits and veg being have designed that way to keep disease at bay.

Wow, things seem a bit scary down where you live right now, I'm sorry you're going through that. Supply chain issues haven't shown up in our grocery stores in BC yet thank goodness and I'm very grateful for that. I have a ton of eggplants right now and this gave me lots of ideas, thanks!

I find those puppy pads excellent for draining wet vegetables (or even meat and poultry). If it’s just veg or salad greens, I just hang them to dry over the handle of my gas oven and reuse it. Sometimes I line the cat litter pans with it or cut into smaller sizes to place under something that might drip in my fridge, line the crisper drawers or shelves in the doors and at the bottom of garbage cans. But the point is, they absorb a lot of moisture that wicks down instead of having wet paper towels that you really can’t use for much but compost. Pretty inexpensive at Costco too.

Hello Shaye, This looks mouthwatering! Have you tried a Venus flytrap? More main dishes with garden produce videos, please & thank you. All the best, Julie 🌷

U r home is so beautiful like u 💐